Join Eric Kessel at the 75th Annual Canadian Water Resources Association (CWRA) National Conference (“VALUING SHARED WATERS“) in Canmore, Alberta. Eric’s presentation covers the amazing work he has been doing to synthesize a variety of data sources in order to create a standardized stream-data set (including Strahler order) as part of the Canada1Water modelling program. This standardized stream-network data set will be just one of the many data products available to everyone at the conclusion of this 3-year project.
Click here to register and attend the presentation.
Title: Canada1Water stream-network analysis for national scale hydrological modelling
Session 1a The Integrated Assessment of Surface Water Groundwater interactions across a myriad of spatial scales
Date and time: Wednesday June 8th, 2022 -9:00am MT
Authors: Eric Kessel, Steve Frey, Hazen Russel
Presented by / Présenté par: Eric Kessel
Contact: ekessel@aquanty.com
Abstract:
Canada1Water (C1W) is constructing physically-based fully-integrated groundwater – surface water (GW – SW) models with complete coverage of continental Canada. These state-of-the-art models will be coupled with regional climate modeling to simulate an ensemble of climate change scenarios in major drainage regions to better understand GW – SW resource sustainability. This modeling requires a continuous ordered stream network; however, such a dataset does not exist. Stream order assignment facilitates efficient drainage network refinement through the removal of low order streams to satisfy C1W model resolution constraints.
C1W has assigned Strahler stream order to the National Hydrological Network (NHN) using a standardized methodology that ensures stream order continuity across watershed and Provincial-Territorial boundaries. The software RivEx (version 10.37) was used to process the NHN in ArcMap. The NHN, is comprised of over 1500 individual file that were grouped by 57 major watersheds prior to processing. Processing involved automated and manual topological error detection and correction (disconnected/ intersecting polylines). With a topological correct network RivEx builds a binary graph network of node connectivity that allows stream order assignment and further calculations such as upstream and downstream lengths, watershed delineations, or other important features. The Ontario Integrated Hydrology, BC Freshwater Atlas, and NHDPlus (USA) have been used for regional validation of the C1W stream networks, which shows strong agreement, yet also identifies potential errors in Provincial/State data. C1W will release the consolidated and vetted stream network and supporting datasets under a Government of Canada Open Data Licence for use by academia, government, and private sectors.
